After wading through Kevin Scarbinsky’s fellating of Nick Saban, I wonder if college football shouldn’t save us all a lot of time and trouble and just set up a four-team playoff to determine Alabama’s opponent in the title game.

This is usually the point things come crashing down. What do the Meyer Florida dynasty, the Davis Miami dynasty, the Carroll USC dynasty, the Tressell OSU dynasty, and the Saban LSU dynasty all have in common? They all ended (or went up in flames) soon after an article similar to this was written.

I don’t wish anyone ill, but it’s EXTREMELY hard to maintain the level Alabama is at right now. Something will happen: Saban will leave, Saban will get burned out, a scandal will break, something.

PD, you are probably too young to remember this but on election night 1972 after Nixon had trounced the Democratic nominee roughly 65%-35% and everybody on TV was kissing Nixon’s ass David Brinkley said something somewhat similar to what you just said and…..Watergate surfaced a few months later. I don’t know exactly what it is but there is something rotten going on in Tuscaloosa. It just hasn’t shown up yet.

I can’t believe he’s a paid columnist. His paranoia and delusion is more befitting a fan blog. He thinks the SEC gave other teams bye weeks before Alabama because they wanted to stop Saban? Does he not realize that the league has benefitted greatly from having teams in the national championship picture and is more likely to *prop up* the championship contenders? A “Stop Saban” conspiracy? What a fucking joke.

Quite frankly, I would object if EVERY SEC opponent set their bye week just prior to playing us as they did to Bama. Concern was given around the conference regarding those coincidences. FU and UGA (sometimes) set their bye week at just before Jax. Practising for two weeks for an opponent is decidedly an advantage. If all our scheduled opponents did that, I would howl to high heaven.

I get it. Nick Saban is an outstanding football coach. Very likely he is the best coach in CFB today. They have won two of the last three mythical National Championships.

His teams have won the SEC West 2 times in 5 years. His teams have won 1 SEC title in 5 years, although they have been favored to win it in each of the past 3 years. If things go according to the prognasticators, he will lose out to LSU again this year.

Last year he was blessed to have been selected to play for the BCS title, even though they were unable to win the SEC West all the while playing two tough conference games, both at home and going 1-1.

Please spare me the hero worship. On the field Alabama has been very, very good. But 1 SEC title in 5 years, when favored to win it for the last three years does not equate to sainthood.

And I understand that, in this day and age. He is the best coach in the SEC and probably the nation. But sometimes, we lose a bit of perspective. He has done a great job…but within the SEC, it is not exactly Bryant or even Spurrier like, yet.

I loved growing up in Alabama, and Birmingham is one of my favorite places to have lived (Birmingham is not only beautiful, but it also has a stellar restaurant scene). But, when Alabama righted the ship in 2008 (THE GREATEST 11 POINT WEEYIN EVER, PAAWWWWLLL!!!111!!!111!!!), I saw otherwise “normal” people turn into obnoxious assholes almost overnight. Football was inserted into EVERY context: work, dinner parties, church. It was relentless. Couldn’t escape it. The passion that Warren St. John writes books about isn’t confined to game days. Scarbinsky, Pawl, et al. understand that. They know their audience.

I drove a bunch of my classmates over to Tuscaloosa last August to help with tornado recovery/cleanup for a weekend. You can bet that football sure as hell didn’t come up much then.

Scarbo will sing Bama’s praises one day, and then will be an Auburn apologist the next. He is trying his best to help his dying paper. Therefore, he doesn’t want to offend anyone.

However, he is correct about Saban. When he came to Bama he awoke a sleeping giant. We finally got a coach that obsesses over college football as much as the fans do. It won’t last forever, but I am enjoying the ride while it lasts.